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The Starr Foundation Makes $20 Million Gift to New York Law School’s Capital Campaign

Posted on May 26, 2010

The gift is in honor of New York Law School Alumnus and
Starr Foundation Chair, Maurice R. Greenberg, Class of 1950

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New York, NY — New York Law School has received a $20 million gift from The Starr Foundation for its Breaking New Ground. Again. capital campaign. The gift—the largest ever received by the Law School and among the top 20 gifts ever given to any law school—will be used to support student scholarships and programs. The Starr Foundation’s gift comes just one year after the Law School opened the doors to its new state-of-the-art academic building located at 185 West Broadway.

“The gift, which honors our esteemed alumnus, Maurice Greenberg, will be used to fund student scholarships and programs, including collaborative learning projects with a real-world impact where students gain experience and expertise in areas such as financial services, where Mr. Greenberg has been a global leader for his entire career, business, information law, international law, public service, and real estate,” said New York Law School Dean and President, Richard A. Matasar. “I can think of no better use for this wonderful gift than to provide the support and programming our students need to become effective leaders of the legal profession. It is especially gratifying to have such a generous commitment in honor of Mr. Greenberg, a most distinguished businessman, philanthropist, and alumnus.”

“The directors of the Foundation are delighted to make this gift in honor of our longtime chairman, Hank Greenberg,” said Florence A. Davis, President of The Starr Foundation. “Hank wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth—he was able to attend college and then New York Law School because of scholarship support he received after service in the U.S. Army during World War II. As a successful leader in business and philanthropy, one of Hank’s highest priorities is to help the next generations of students who could not otherwise afford higher education.”

This gift will have a tremendous impact on New York Law School’s ability to take an ongoing leadership position in setting a new standard for legal education. The School has already broken out of the traditional law school mold of teaching primarily legal theory, and has enhanced its curriculum with innovative real-world programs that result in students graduating with a unique grounding in both theory and experience. The creation of cutting-edge programs will continue on a robust basis. Recently, the Law School piloted a successful collaborative learning initiative within several of its academic centers, and with the success of the pilot, it now has future plans to expand the base and scale of this type of learning to encompass the entire student body. In addition to its own work in this area, New York Law School has partnered with Harvard Law School to host a yearlong contest of ideas about legal education in order to surface operational alternatives to the traditional law school business model and to identify concrete steps for the implementation of new designs. (See www.nyls.edu/FutureEd for more information about the partnership and contest.)

The Starr Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States and makes grants in a number of areas, including education, medicine and healthcare, human needs, public policy, culture, and environment. Established in 1955 by Cornelius Vander Starr, founder of C.V. Starr & Co., and other companies later combined into American International Group, Inc. (AIG), The Foundation is currently chaired by New York Law School alumnus Maurice R. (Hank) Greenberg ’50. Mr. Greenberg is also Chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. Mr. Greenberg became President and CEO of AIG in 1967 and retired as Chairman and CEO of AIG in 2005.

About New York Law School

Founded in 1891, New York Law School is an independent law school located in lower Manhattan near the city’s centers of law, government, and finance. New York Law School’s renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the School’s strength in such areas as constitutional law, civil and human rights, labor and employment law, media and information law, urban legal studies, international and comparative law, and a number of interdisciplinary fields. The School is noted for its nine academic centers: Center on Business Law & Policy, Center on Financial Services Law, Center for International Law, Center for New York City Law, Center for Professional Values and Practice, Center for Real Estate Studies, Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families, Institute for Information Law & Policy, and Justice Action Center. New York Law School has more than 13,000 graduates and enrolls some 1,500 students in its full- and part-time J.D. program and its four advanced degree programs in financial services law, real estate, tax, and mental disability law studies. www.nyls.edu.